amenazar (in a particular context)

English translation: threaten

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"El cuerpo presentaba signos de ser torturado y amenazado, tambien presentaba varios impactos de arma de fuego en diferentes partes del cuerpo."
Police report of corpse found in Colombia. Normally, I know 'amenazar' is to threaten; however, I don't see how a corpse can show signs of having been threatened, tortured yes. Does 'amenazado' have any other (more marginal or regional) meanings that would apply? Sorry for the subject matter, but obviously, I have to be cautious and get this right. I realise it may just be loose use of language, which I may have to translate 'tal cual'.

Explanation:I'm afraid you are dealing with a poor original. What did the writer mean? Who knows! :-)
In Spanish, "un cadaver con signos de amenaza" makes no sense; as it makes no sense in English either, I would translate it as "threatened (sic)".

Thanks for your help in this rather unpleasant text (but someone has to do it). In the absence of anyone coming up with a regional or marginal meaning for 'amenazar', I think yours is definitely the best answer.4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Answers

12 mins confidence:

signs of stress?

Explanation:I am not from Colombia, and I can't really think of physiological changes that may be either obvious to the naked eye or discovered on autopsy that would occur by being threatened (the resulting stress would show in adrenaline levels, pallor or flushing sweat, etc.) but that would not equally be there as a result of torture.

So if you feel you need to keep that element and don't find out any better, then this would be my suggestion.

Explanation:It seems as if the tortures and the threats went together: small cuts inflicted with a knife are the prelude or foreplay of larger cuts, each punch would be harder than the previous one, gradually increasing, each kick would be more violent, and the expression or traces of all this would remain on the face of the victim even after death. Torture is generally used to oblige the victim to say, confess or do something, and this in itself is a threat of more torture. Torture is always accompanied by threat, and the signs of the suffering remain. People are normally tortured in order to obtain information, or to get a ransom from relatives. Maybe they obliged the victim to phone his relatives requesting a ransom, in which case the threat would have been more evident.

I hate to talk about all this, but it is necessary in my opinion to clarify the issue. If there is a more specific word, I have not been able to find it.

Explanation:I'm afraid you are dealing with a poor original. What did the writer mean? Who knows! :-)
In Spanish, "un cadaver con signos de amenaza" makes no sense; as it makes no sense in English either, I would translate it as "threatened (sic)".

Thanks for your help in this rather unpleasant text (but someone has to do it). In the absence of anyone coming up with a regional or marginal meaning for 'amenazar', I think yours is definitely the best answer.

Explanation:"Amenazar" is used in a very strange way in this unfortunate context. It is very common to see this type of wording in theapers and in forensic reports. This is how I would render it. It is up to you to decide whether "extensive" fits in with the rest of the signs of torture documented in your text. That is why I have left it in parentheses.

"The body showed (extensive) signs of torture under threat of / on pain of death; there were also various gunshot wounds on different parts of the body."